Android Tablet Update

Heading into Mobile World Congress, the ASUS Padfone was one of the devices that I was most looking forward to playing with. I loved the ASUS Transformer Prime, so I figured the Padfone could be a hit too. However, what I found in Barcelona did not impress me.

The modular concept of the Padfone is a great idea on paper, but the final product might need a couple of revisions before it finds success. Where the Transformer Prime was sleek and sexy, the Padfone is fat and ugly. I found the Padfone with tablet station and keyboard dock to be extremely heavy, but most of that weight is for the batteries that can boost capacity by 9x.

The ASUS Padfone + tablet station + keyboard dock

I kind of see the appeal of expanding your smartphone view to a 10-inch display, but we will have to wait on the final pricing of the tablet station to see how practical that will become. ASUS also touted the benefits of one data plan for two devices, but I don’t know if US carriers would allow that. Back when AT&T released the Motorola Atrix, they charged extra to get mobile data on the lapdock accessory.

Overall, the Padfone will live or die based on how the carriers price the accessories and the mobile data plans. For someone like me that already uses a tablet and smartphone, there is not much desire for the Padfone as it is currently designed. Show me something new like a 13 to 14-inch laptop station for my smartphone, and then maybe I’ll be interested.

Check out the hands-on video of the Padfone below and let us know what you think. What price would you be willing to pay for the Padfone, tablet station, and keyboard dock?

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When Asus announced the Padfone last year, many of us questioned the success of such an odd device. Who wants a phone that plugs into a tablet-sized display? Then Asus released their Transformer series of tablets with attachable keyboard docks and people saw the advantages of their modular design.

Asus went back to the drawing board and will unveil a newly redesigned Padfone at Mobile World Congress this weekend. The major change to the original concept is supposed to be the addition of a keyboard dock, similar to the Transformer. The concept design that Asus showed at CES actually worked with the original TF101 keyboard dock, but the new Padfone is expected to be compatible with the TF201 dock from the Transformer Prime.

This three piece combo was hinted at in a new teaser video released by Asus. The quick clip shows a set of matryoshka dolls with a message that reads, “1 + 1 + 1 = Endless Possibilities.”

I’m a huge fan of the Transformer Prime, so if Asus can improve the user experience even further then I think they could have a hit on their hands. Not many US carriers have ever carried Asus smartphones, so it remains to be seen if we will ever see the Padfone on our shores.

How many of you would be interested in a phone + tablet + keyboard trio?

Is Android 4.0 mature enough to replace a desktop PC? I’m writing this post with Chrome Beta for Android on my Asus Transformer Prime and I think it’s almost there. Previously I was disappointed with the Browser performance on the Prime, but the recent software updates to Android 4.0.3 combined with the Chrome browser are starting to live up to my expectations.

Before there was almost no way I could get any real content creation done on the Prime, but it is now passable. The performance still does not match my Samsung ultrabook, but I have noticed great improvements since I first gave this a try last year. The keyboard lag with heavy web apps like WordPress is gone, scrolling is smooth, and my Logitech USB mouse works great.

I’m not the only one that thinks Android 4.0 is passable as a desktop operating system. Android enthusiast Christian Cantrell hooked up his Galaxy Nexus to a computer monitor, wireless keyboard with touchpad, and speakers to demonstrate the user experience. He notes that Android 4.0 has most of the functionality he could need, but the performance of the dual-core OMAP4460 in the Galaxy Nexus leaves a little to be desired.

Most Android manufactures have not really tried to push the envelope for this type of user experience, with the exception of Motorola. Their Atrix 4G was ahead of its time, but it clearly hinted where Android was going. We predicted over a year ago that Android, Chrome, and Google TV would merge onto a single device, and we are almost there.

Motorola’s webtop experience and lapdock accessory were both cool ideas, but the final experience just sucked. Now that Google is taking over Motorola and hardware continues to advance at a rapid pace, we will finally see Sanjay Jha’s original vision come true. Your smartphone will become your most personal computer and eventually replace your desktop or laptop PC.

ASUS is likely to be one of the first companies to produce one of these so called ultraphones. Their upcoming Padfone will dock into a tablet, that can dock into a keyboard, that can connect to any display. This modular design will be copied over and over by every other OEM.

We might still be another generation away from mobile processors that can deliver the PC-like performance we crave, but there are software solutions to fill the gap. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang demonstrated this at CES. Apps like Splashtop provide a virtualized OS that delivers the same exact experience you would expect from a desktop PC.

As I wrote yesterday, I still think Chrome will one day overtake Android as Google’s platform for connected devices, but that could be a decade away. Over the next five years, I see Android becoming the number one operating system on all web clients.

I realize this might sound crazy and Windows still has 70-80% market share depending on the source, but who would have predicted that Android would become the top smartphone OS as fast as it did. Smartphone sales already overtook client PCs in 2011, and that trend will continue to accelerate.

What do you think the Android ecosystem needs to deliver before you would give up your PC?